Asia Pacific Activities Conference

The Asia Pacific Activities Conference^[1] (APAC) is an extracurricular athletics and arts program for international schools in the Asia-Pacific area. APAC was founded in 1995 with the purpose of providing an "interesting, well-rounded extra-curricular program for international schools in the Asia-Pacific area". For the years that the APAC events have taken place, there have been sports tournaments and arts exchanges involving international schools from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Every year a different school in different locations in Asia and the Pacific will host various APAC tournaments, thus students from international schools get the opportunity to travel within Asia-Pacific to not only compete in athletics and in the arts, but also experience new cultures and destinations. Being selected as part of the APAC delegates of a school is a privilege and the chosen participants are usually part of a school's varsity team or the like.

History

The Asia Pacific Activities Conference was founded in 1995 by the Association of the Board of International Schools. It began and grew out of the "Kansai League" in Japan with Osaka International School (no longer involved) and Canadian Academy Kobe, then expanded to include international schools in China (The International School of Beijing, Shanghai American School Puxi), South Korea (Seoul Foreign School), and the Philippines (Brent International School Manila). Later, APAC expanded to include other international schools in China (American International School of Guangzhou, Western Academy of Beijing, Shanghai American School Pudong, Concordia International School Shanghai), Hong Kong (Hong Kong International School), South Korea (Taejon Christian International School), and Vietnam (United Nations International School of Hanoi). These exchanges then became very popular between international schools involved.

Because APAC events are great opportunities for arts and sports exchange between the schools involved, it has garnered the attention of many international schools in the Asia-Pacific area.

Participating schools

After 1995 (when the APAC athletics tournaments were established) American School of Guangzhou, Brent Manila,^[2] the Canadian Academy, Concordia International School Shanghai, Hong Kong International School, International School of Beijing, Shanghai American School Puxi, Shanghai American School Pudong, Seoul Foreign School, Taejon Christian International School, Western Academy of Beijing, and United Nations International School of Hanoi now compete in the official APAC Tournaments for Varsity level teams. Several times every year each school will either send a team to another international school (for a specific APAC competition) or host an APAC competition. The hosting school will usually provide accommodation for the visiting APAC teams through homestays (a process where visiting students are assigned to a host-student's house).

Each of the mentioned international schools compete in various athletic, arts and music competitions (all called APAC) throughout the school year (August – June). Each competition is hosted by a different school every year, and often because there is such a large number of schools competing in APAC, the tournaments are broken into two tournaments hosting six schools (instead of one tournament hosting twelve schools).

APAC divisions

For most of the activities, there are two divisions: the Asia and Pacific division. The schools in a division are different every year, so participants will have a chance to meet other people from different schools. Every four years there is a "Super APAC" conference including all participating schools for the activities where there are two divisions.

Competitions and Performing Arts

Arts (Non-Competitive)

These activities are non-competitive and does not involve special recognition or awards for outstanding delegates. It is a culmination of two and a half days of rehearsals and the final performance held on the third day. In theatre, the host school assign participating schools a theme in which they are required to write and act out the script. Dance has a similar disposition, where the directors of a participating school choreographs a dance. For orchestra, band and choir, a selection of music from different genres, mostly classical will be performed along with the other participating schools. In addition, for choir, each school also performs two songs of their own choosing. Host schools invite conductors from around the world to lead the delegates in their repertoire.

Athletics (Competitive)

APAC and corresponding time of year

Every year the next APAC is planned at least a year in advance, therefore even though each APAC may not be on the same exact dates as the ones before, they will be around the same time of the month. The following times for APAC are by month because there is not usually a concrete date for each and every APAC that will be held, although they always occur within the same month.

The corresponding time for APAC for all sports in the first season is October (e.g. Rugby, Volleyball and Tennis), APAC for all sports that are in the second season occurs in February (Basketball), and APAC for all third season sports is in April (e.g. soccer/football and badminton).

References